java_vs_flash
For a few years talented programmers have wondered whether to learn and use Flash or Java or some other such development toolset. On sheer faith programmers bought into the power and promise Adobe or SUN Tools over the last couple of years. Then Life happened brining a variety of options!
Many pioneering developers and programmers are still wondering exactly what happened? Well, as usual the world kept turning and sure enough things changed as they have a way of doing. One could easily have envisioned how solutions built on Flash and Java would, could, and in some cases have actually become central to the emerging Social Media Ecosystem. However as it has ultimately turned out platform politics took over and things changed rapidly. The effects are just now being felt and realized. Flash and Java have quickly fallen out of favor and their developer base is left wondering, “where to from here?”
Adobe is in a similar position as Microsoft and will have to pioneer and chart new paths for their base of loyal and dedicated developers and believers that will have to tow the company line. In the meantime, HTML 5 is capturing the excitement of creative developers around the world and the web.
These are of course substantial risks and requirements of investing in, learning and committing to new emerging and sometimes unproven technology. The jury is not in yet on this, but the other shoe seems to be dropping and daily we are seeing changes that echo down to impact decisions we made long ago.
Much the same can also be said of Python, C++, Ruby but these have been the fuel behind the tools we now use and have come rely on. The lesson here is that even though the tools may certainly change our needs for them and the ways we will use them will remain strong and grow as we go forward. The game is still young.
Years after initial success, Java, Flash and Microsoft’s Dynamic HTML (reborn as AJAX) are not faring well, and SUN has washed their hands of JAVA, now the baby of Oracle and HTML5 is lurking ready to step up and snatch up the future.
Microsoft has decided to stradle the fence by delivering additional HTML5 and Java tools this year for their many Visual Studio programmers.
This all must be extremely confusing for young fledgling would-be programmers trying to figure out just what to study and master.
Where all this will end up, only time will tell!